Virion Appoints Vanessa King as President & CEO

“We are delighted to welcome Vanessa and Isabel, strong leaders with the skills and expertise to advance Virion and its pipeline for treating and preventing respiratory virus infections,” said Jeffrey Almond, PhD, Chairman of Virion.

I’m delighted to join Virion at this exciting time. The company’s scientific approach has tremendous potential to transform the prevention and clinical management of patients suffering from the full range of respiratory virus infections,” said Vanessa King. “We are focused on moving our lead product, VH244, into the clinic and building the capabilities required to support its development.”

Vanessa King has held senior positions in pharma and biotech, leading business development, financing, and operations organizations. Previous to Virion, she was President and CEO of Luc Therapeutics, where she led its transformation into a precision medicine neuroscience company with a clinical pipeline. Before that, Vanessa led business development for deCODE Genetics, leading to its acquisition by Amgen in 2012 for $415 million. Vanessa has also served as Executive Chairman of Tiaki Therapeutics, been an Entrepreneur in Residence at Atlas Venture, and held senior business development and operating positions at Amgen and Novartis. She earned her PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Cambridge, UK.